This invention relates to the field of advanced fuel dispenser equipment, particularly dispensers for use by the public and attendant staff at gasoline service stations, and dispensers used in any other facilities for fueling vehicles, aircraft and marine craft.
Many fueling facilities today have self service fueling as well convenience stores and restaurants. As a result there is a lot of traffic at fueling facilities which includes customer vehicles, fuel delivery tanker trucks and merchandise delivery trucks. The facility attendants are always busy typically not well trained to handle a fueling equipment emergency, such as fuel leak or a fire at a dispenser due to a vehicle impact, a weather event or any other act of God.
In the event of an impact to a fueling dispenser it is possible that the fuel piping and associated piping connections located either underneath or inside the dispenser could begin to leak or rupture causing a fire or possibly contaminate the surrounding environment.
A undetected fuel leak at a dispenser, no matter how slow has the potential of causing a catastrophic problem. An uncontained fuel leak could escape into the environment causing a possible ground contamination problem, like pollution of ground water.
A more immediate problem could be that of a major fuel leak caused by internal damage to a fuel dispenser due to a vehicle impact. This impact to the fuel dispenser could generate a spark from damaged electrical connections or from static electricity causing a fire. Fuel dispensers that are installed at fueling facilities having pressurized fuel delivery systems include a fuel delivery pump located at the underground fuel storage tank. This fuel delivery pump supplies fuel to all of the fuel dispensers and therefore could continue to supply fuel to the damaged dispenser that could be on fire. Pressurized fuel delivery systems require that safety valves be installed directly under the dispensers to shut off the fuel to a damaged dispenser, but if for some reason one or more of these safety valves was damaged during the impact or malfunctions and fuel was not shut off, the resulting fire could be catastrophic.
A common procedure today is that the facility""s attendant would press an xe2x80x9cEmergency Stop Buttonxe2x80x9d to shut off power to all of the fuel delivery pumps and dispensers instantly, providing the attendant is aware of the event. Historically this manual response system to a dispenser fire has to failed causing personal injury and even death.
Currently on the market today there are a variety independent devices, not supplied by the dispenser manufacturers, that could be used together to create a catastrophic protection system for one or more dispensers. Typically these devices are sold separately and are collectively expensive. Examples of these devices are listed as follow:
1. Shear Valves: One or more safety valves are required to be mounted underneath fuel dispensers which are part of pressurized fuel delivery systems. These mechanically actuated valves are designed to automatically close one or two internal valves instantly upon significant impact to the dispenser or due to high heat produced from a fire. These valves prevent the pressurized fuel from continuing to feed a fire or leak product into the environment.
2. Impact Actuation Devices: These type independent trip type sensors are designed to shut-off power to the dispenser(s) and/or fuel deliver pump(s) upon significant impact to the dispenser. They are supplied separately from the dispensers and can be costly to purchase and install.
3. Leak Detection Devices: There are a variety of independent leak detection devices that are designed to signal an alarm and/or shut off power to the fuel delivery pump and/or dispenser in the event of a fuel leak detected by the leak detection sensor installed typically in a containment sump located under the dispenser.
Some leak detection sensors are only one component of a larger leak detection system which may include many leak detection sensors, a number of liquid level tank gauging sensors, a independent monitoring box or a modular monitoring component as part of a POS (point of sale) system.
There are other types of stand-alone leak detection sensors that can be mounted under the fuel dispenser and inside a containment sump that require no monitoring box and that automatically signal an alarm at the dispenser or turn-off the dispenser in the event of detecting a leak. These devices are usually complicated sensors, experience false alarms and are expensive to purchase and maintain.
As far as is presently known, there are no independent devices on the market that are designed to mounted inside or under a dispenser that will automatically shut-off the power to the dispenser and/or fuel delivery pump in the event of a fire at the dispenser.
It is important that retail fueling facilities have a fail-safe system to protect fueling customers from fire that could result from a dispenser impact. In addition it is also important to have the capability to detect even the smallest of leaks which can originate from faulty plumbing connections, faulty equipment or damage from a mild impact to a dispenser that may go undetected. Fuel leaks, no matter how slow, will collect inside containment sump therefore having the potential to cause a fire or explosion explode ignited from a customer""s cigarette, a static charge or faulty electrical connection. Additionally undetected fuel leaks could overflow a containment sump and escape into the surrounding environment contaminating the environment and possibly our underground drinking water.
The main reasons most retail fueling facilities do not offer completely fail-safe catastrophic protection systems for all of their dispensers is because it is to costly, difficult to install and maintain.
The invention is a fuel dispenser that is factory equipped with an integrated catastrophic protection system. This system is designed to provide fire protection, impact protection and leaking fuel protection. It is not a prevention system but rather an immediate response system that will instantly shut off power to the fuel delivery pump and/or fuel dispenser as well as signal an alarm upon detection of a impact, fire or leak.
The invention is a very low cost catastrophic protection system which is included as a standard feature of the fuel dispenser. The only cost to the buyer would be for replacement parts such as replacement leak detection sensors.